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Posing as a University of Tennessee football player, a Sweetwater man terrorized a female student — largely through Snapchat — with threats of violence and humiliation if she did not send him nude selfies with sexually explicit captions, court...

Posing as a University of Tennessee football player, a Sweetwater, Tenn., man terrorized a female student — largely through Snapchat — with threats of violence and humiliation if she did not send him nude selfies with sexually explicit captions, court records show.

Brandon Douglas Shanahan, 22, of Sweetwater, was arraigned Wednesday in U.S. District Court on a charge of extortion via Snapchat, the first such prosecution here involving the image messaging app. He was arrested Tuesday after an investigation by the FBI's Cyber Crimes Task Force.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the case by UT Police Department Officer Jaron B. Patterson, Shanahan enticed the female student into engaging with him on Snapchat by pretending to be UT defensive back Cameron Sutton. Prosecutors said in a news release authorities believe Shanahan has used the ruse with other women and asked that anyone who might have engaged with a Snapchat user identified as 'Camsutton2323' contact the FBI's Knoxville office.

Patterson, a member of the task force, said he was contacted by the student, identified by the initials 'C.C.' in the complaint, on April 12. She told him that three weeks earlier someone using the moniker 'Camsutton2323' engaged her on Snapchat.

'C.C. stated that she believed she was conversing with Cameron Sutton, a University of Tennessee football player since the display name for Camsutton2323 was 'Cameron Sutton,' and the number 23 is Cameron Sutton's University of Tennessee jersey number,' Patterson wrote in the complaint. 'C.C. stated that Camsutton2323 sent messages stating, 'You're a goddess' and 'You're beautiful' in the early stages of their communication.'

She eventually shared identifying information with him, including her phone number, hometown and roommate's name.

'C.C. stated that Camsutton2323 sent her a photograph of a black male torso from the neck to the waist which bore a large tattoo about the rib area' as proof he was indeed Sutton, Patterson wrote.

Patterson did not state whether Sutton has a tattoo on his chest. The student could not recall the tattoo in detail, he wrote. Shanahan is white. Sutton is black.

On April 9, the woman went to a bar, where she 'became very drunk' and posted several photographs of herself at the bar on Snapchat, Patterson wrote.

'C.C. stated that she returned to her residence and stated, 'All I remember is taking off my clothes and getting in bed,' ' the complaint stated.

The next day, Camsutton2323 'told her that she took nude photographs of herself and transmitted them to Camsutton2323 while she was intoxicated,' Patterson wrote. 'C.C. stated to me that she did not believe she took nude photographs of herself, but she could not recall for certain.'

Snapchat deletes photos within seconds of being sent, so the woman said she could not be sure whether she sent the user such photographs. She 'had enough doubt to consider that she may have, in fact, taken a nude photograph of herself and transmitted it to him,' Patterson wrote.

Camsutton2323 then threatened to 'post the purported nude photograph or photographs that he alleged C.C. sent to him while she was intoxicated on social media unless C.C. took more nude photographs and sent them to him,' Patterson wrote.

The woman began receiving calls from a number since linked to Shanahan in which he instructed her to make sexually explicit comments and include specific sexual statements to the nude photographs he demanded she send, Patterson wrote.

At one point, the caller, still claiming to be Sutton, said 'he had been shot with a firearm and suffered a gunshot wound in the past,' according to the complaint.

'C.C. refused to engage the caller in his desired communication; therefore, he stated 'That mouth on you, I'm going to put you what I went through.' C.C. believed the caller was insinuating that he would shoot her based on the earlier comment that he had been shot,' the complaint stated.

The demands continued, growing more frequent despite the woman's pleas that he stop, the complaint stated. She began taking 'screenshots' of the messages, but Snapchat notifies users when their messages are preserved, so the user posing as Sutton realized she was doing so. This infuriated him, according to the complaint.

'Screenshot again (and I'll) have someone post these pics all over social media for me,' the complaint stated, quoting from the victim's screenshots. 'Last (expletive) chance to snap me a pic of (you). Hurry up. Snap me a selfie saying u want my (male anatomy). Wink in it. Hurry up before I change my mind (and) want something else.'

The woman finally acceded to his demands — in part.

'C.C. told me, 'I've never been more scared in my life,' ' Patterson wrote. 'Under duress, C.C. complied with Camsutton2323's demands and sent approximately seven photographs of her wearing only a bikini and wearing only undergarments.'

Shanahan was granted pretrial release Wednesday. Records on the restrictions set, which would typically include an order to stay off the Internet and away from the victim, were not immediately available in the U.S. District Court file Wednesday afternoon.

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